SCP-4918 / Discussion

This is the discussion related to the wiki page SCP-4918.

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Author Commentary

Ihp 17 Nov 2018 23:26

So I had this idea about a week ago, just before the 100th anniversary of the Armistice. It wasn't originally going to be a World War I piece, but The Great Hippo made a few good arguments about why it should be WWI and not WWII, among which was the fact that Finland was an allied country, and I think that any Finnish SCP Foundation readers would have their eyebrows raised if Väinämöinen was allied with the Nazis. Same with Frederick I— he was really progressive for his day, and would probably have hated Hitler.

This is also based, in part, on Overly Sarcastic Productions's video on Fionn Mac Cumhaill, specifically the segment where Red discusses how the apocalypse is going to be a lot more interesting depending on how many King in the Mountain/Sleeping Hero myths are true.

Thanks to all of the beta readers for this, including:

Meserach
DrChandra
Weryllium
Researcher Blasko
RailroadRider
Kakroom

And special thanks to The Great Hippo for advice on Frederick's characterization.

Image Attribution:

First image is from here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:British_cavalry_resting_1917.jpg

Second image is from here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Inha_runonlaulajat.jpg

Both images are in the public domain.

Hope you enjoy!

Last edited on 18 Nov 2018 00:32 by Ihp Show more

Genshed 18 Nov 2018 01:25

Thoroughly enjoyed this! A lot of historical detail, handled well. The idea of Kaiser Bill sending soldiers to shoot the ravens was entirely believable. The general disgust of the heroes upon seeing the grotesque meatgrinder that was modern warfare was also.

(account deleted) 18 Nov 2018 02:21

The general disgust of the heroes upon seeing the grotesque meatgrinder that was modern warfare was also

In retrospect, this is the highlight of the piece for me. Seeing the different ways that they reacted to the horrible illogic of the Great War both as people and as representatives of their nations was really interesting; Frederick takes the dispassionate view (or as dispassionate as the insanity of the trenches will allow him) making to improve his nation, Arthur runs headfirst into Dodge regardless of possible injury to himself, and so on. WW1 was a perfect setting for this piece; I think that setting it thirty years later would actually actively work against the narrative, considering how the war against Hitler was one of the few times modern warfare has ever even approximated mirroring the black and white conflict of national myth. WW1 is the archetypical industrial-scale human slaughterhouse of the 20th century: devoid of excuse, justice, or proportional motivation. Putting that in perspective to our heroes' histories is quite compelling.

Modern_Erasmus 18 Nov 2018 22:08

Fantastic work man. I've actually been working on a similar concept (legendary rulers frozen in time until a great need) for a long time, though I think your version is probably better than what I had. Considering the number of very similar irl legends on the subject the only surprise is that no one's done this sooner.

The main difference between mine and this was a particular focus on Constantine XI (who according to a legend from the siege, was frozen in gold beneath the city until the time came for the empire to rise again- similar stuff to Barbarossa and Arthur), so I can probably spin that off into a skip of its own or something.

OthellotheCat 18 Nov 2018 23:38

I truly, truly truly loved this article for a lot of reasons

Historically it's an absolute delight to read, and I heartily give it a +1

The only thing is that the name is the same name as Asgore's theme from Undertale so I went through the entirety of the article thinking "fingers in his ass, fingers in his ass…

Still really great though

dendrite 27 Nov 2018 12:58

was fun to read, i love your works! +1

MightyR 27 Nov 2018 13:58

Amazing, lovely eye-catching writing style as well.
Also, why the hell these people weigh upwards of four hundred pounds?
ABSOLUTE U N I T.

---

ole yeeyee headass

Ihp 28 Nov 2018 00:17

It is because I cannot math properly. The values of their weight have been adjusted.

forteana 29 Nov 2018 20:44

This is a beautiful, beautiful story. +1

Mythical stories always resonate very hard with me - and the moment I realized who 4918-1 was, I was completely hooked. The clash between mythic ideals and the modern banality of evil was very, very effective.

I was unaware of Väinämöinen and knew of the Kalevala only in passing before reading this - does anyone know of a good English translation?

AimEngie 09 Dec 2018 18:13

Yess!!! I love it. I have seen too many return of Arthur stories shot down. This is brilliant.

Squamous 17 Dec 2018 16:32

Simple concept but handled really well, and it makes for a really fun SCP.

Guestest 11 Jan 2019 16:01

+1.

very nice (tm)

All jokes aside, I think this SCP was brilliantly done. The comment about "ungentlemanly warfare" is quite true nowadays, not just in reference to that one division of the SAS. WW1 was really the last gentleman's war. Anyhow; this was well researched, and I think you did a very good job.

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